# WTC owners for 9/11? For what?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-owners-for-9-11-for-what/217119>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 5, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-owners-for-9-11-for-what/217119 "2003-12-05T07:31:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![E.T.Bass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@E.T.Bass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.T.Bass)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-owners-for-9-11-for-what/217119/1 "2003-12-05T07:31:22Z")

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I am sure that this is happening, but has the World Trade Center ownership group (whoever they are, public or private) been sued for the 9/11 attack?

If so, on what grounds? I can see a lawsuit for the 1993 bombing because of security measures, but there was no realistic defense for this. But I know that this concern has been sued.

Comments?

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-owners-for-9-11-for-what/217119/2 "2003-12-05T09:14:21Z")

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The World Trade Center was/is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In April 2001, Silverstein Properties, Inc., and Westfield America, Inc. signed a 99-year lease on four of the WTC buildings, including the Twin Towers.

One day before the first anniversary of the attacks, the legal deadline for filing suits, about 1,000 families of victims filed suits against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, United Airlines, American Airlines, and Boeing Co.

According to a [news story](http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?postDate=2003-09-09&newsId=2842) at the _Business Insurance Daily News_ website,

> [@](#):
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> About 70 plaintiffs charge in a series of consolidated lawsuits [in U.S. District Court] that the airlines failed to stop the hijackers from boarding the planes, that the Port Authority failed to provide safe escape routes and adequate fireproofing in the WTC and that Boeing failed to design secure cockpit doors on its aircraft.
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> While defendants countered that they owed no duty to the plaintiffs because they could not have foreseen the Sept. 11 attacks, Judge Hellerstein rejected this contention.

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**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtc-owners-for-9-11-for-what/217119/3 "2003-12-05T14:10:36Z")

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> [@](#):
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> the airlines failed to stop the hijackers from boarding the planes

The major defense here is that the government has been telling people to just lie low and do nothing for years.

> [@](#):
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> that the Port Authority failed to provide safe escape routes and adequate fireproofing in the WTC

Will probably argue it wasn’t actually possible.

> [@](#):
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> Boeing failed to design secure cockpit doors on its aircraft.

Will probably argue that they do not, in fact, have any obligation to do so.